4-hour recharge timers

majincob

Phillmoore said:

Sorry guys. I think this is a lot of fuss over nothing.  I manage very easily to run this every 4 hours. I like the game and at the weekend this has been the only event running. So in the past I do 4 daily training and then run the 1 node that has built up in the 8 hours I've been sleeping.  Now what.  Nothing to do for a further 8 hours.  That was ludicrous.   Keep the 4 hour break.  At least it means j have things to do in the game and get more attempts at the 3 rd level which means i remember what didn't work 4 hours ago and can make adjustment so accordingly.  

@brigby. 4 hours is absolutely fine.  Thanks.  

Now that I'm not quite so tired, I realize that my personal schedule rant isn't really helpful since it mostly illustrates that I have a busy weekend schedule. What the new "improved" structure does is 3 things:

1. Doubles the amount of time needed to play the event.
2. Requires players to play at least 2 different times during the day (no more than 12 hours apart)
3. Exacerbates the indeterminate end time issue of having a global life count-down

With my schedule, effect 1 and 2 are very inconvenient. 

The side effect of 1 is that yet again they are cutting prize/effort to the top players. I'm glad they are improving the game for people who aren't at the top of the game, but at the same time they are making getting to the top worth less and less, so why should people shell out money to try to catch up and get there?

For 3, it means that now you potentially have to get up twice in the middle of your sleep cycle to make sure you don't miss the last refresh if you care about that. But that is limited to mostly just the top coalitions, so screw those guys right?

UweTellkampf

It's like they just don't want to do anything right. It is so rare that almost everyone here agrees about a positive aspect of the game (8 hours), and then they just come and take that away. "You shall not have a reason to not complain!"

ZW2007-

Phillmoore said:

Either that or bring back qb so at least j can grind points there 

You are aware that you can still grind using training ground right? Sure you don't get as much as QB gave you but it still gives you something to play since you seem to need something to do in game at all times.

murtagon

If the Dev's want to give people more opportunity to play remove the charge timer.  Give people max charges for an event.  Let people play during their schedule.

This charge concept has always been a poor design choice.  People that have RL obligations need to be able to fulfil them and the game should not be a primary life focus.  Its just bad game design.  The 8 hour charge was acceptable compromise but really the ToTP model is the best model since it allows people to play at their own pace.

If this wasn't a coalition event I wouldn't care but it is so I have an obligation to the team which then makes this event a chore instead of a fun event.

madwren

Phillmoore said:

Sorry guys. I think this is a lot of fuss over nothing.  I manage very easily to run this every 4 hours. I like the game and at the weekend this has been the only event running. So in the past I do 4 daily training and then run the 1 node that has built up in the 8 hours I've been sleeping.  Now what.  Nothing to do for a further 8 hours.  That was ludicrous.   Keep the 4 hour break.  At least it means j have things to do in the game and get more attempts at the 3 rd level which means i remember what didn't work 4 hours ago and can make adjustment so accordingly.  

@brigby. 4 hours is absolutely fine.  Thanks.  

Hey Phil,

I'm sure that you aren't intending to come off as dismissive, but you do realize that calling everyone else's concerns "fuss over nothing" is more than a little inconsiderate, right?

No one's talking your ability to play away from you. You can grind Training Ground, Story Mode, Nodes, or ToTP.  Majincob and myself both posted real-world examples of our lives showing the negative impact of 4-hour nodes. I congratulate you for your ability to "very easily" run the event 4 hours. I envy you, in fact! But as seen from the thread, the majority of posters have very real concerns that you shouldn't simply blow off as "nothing".

Skiglass6

The problem is not the 4 hr timer. The problem is the cap on the number of plays. The cap has been moved to 4 which is better than 3. They need to get rid of the cap completely, at least on the boss hp events.

The 8 hour timer only became a problem when they changed the score needed for progression reward. In doing so they needed to increase the hp of the boss so more people could complete the progression rewards and then it ran too long into the next week. So they decreased boss hp and then very few, of any (I did not calculate if possible  

They decided lowering the progression threshold back to previous was not what they wanted. So the only way to fix it was to increase the number of battles in the same amount of time. I really wanted them to keep previous progression threshold as before and add a 5 crystal per every 50 or 100pts over that threshold to keep playing.

As for the final battle possibility being in the middle of the night, depending on the boss hp, my 8hr time has been 3am or 4am (depending on daylight savings time, so I guess everyone will now have a chance for this enjoyable experience (sarcasm). 

klobberer

Do the devs realize that the 3.x nodes take 20-30 minutes to play and usually freeze (for me at least) 15 minutes into a match?

Phillmoore

@losdamianos. You can.  No one forces you to play

Phillmoore

@madwren. My comment was indeed not intended to be dismissive. Maybe I don't get the mechanics of being a top alliance - who btw looking at their group names seem to not be enjoying this game anyway?  

It is a game. Play or don't play.

I enjoy the challenge of the event.  Waiting 8 hours is way too long. Especially as you all agree the reward for winning is poor, for me it's more about the challenge and with 3.1 3.2 and 3.3 basically ramping up so quick unless you can get your key card out quickly the game doesn't last 30 mins.  Sometimes I'm lucky if it last 3 mins and the. Having to wait another 8 hours for another attempt is way too long in my opinion.

 So why get het up about winning when the reward is poor and just enjoy playing it which you can now do more often 

im sorry if this is a voice in the wilderness but I stand by my desire to play more if I choose to or to go out and do some gardening if that's what I wish to do - a game really shouldn't have enforced downtime. There should be things to do at any time I wish to do them and if I want to play events then why should I have to play them to a schedule

If if you don't want to play every 4 hours because you feel it will let your coalition down then I regret the answer is simple. Leave the coalition and enjoy the personal challenge instead? 

Also so what happens when you finish story and all that's left is training.  Seriously? 

And i I do not say the above to be argumentative. I am entitled to my opinion as are you entitled to yours. But this is the only game I know of where when I log in I find no challenge or event running.  

Pcell777

4 hour is fine if it is just for weekends.

losdamianos

@Phillmoore I can understand that unlike 99.99% of community you prefer 4 hour charges but PLEASE use edit button and stop replying under your own post

Laeuftbeidir

So, at 1 percent I consider this event over.
It was no fun at all.
6 hours ?okay ,but 4 hours is seriously not funny.
People in my coalition already thinking about ignoring this event in the future (-> play only till progression, ignore the score for our team building).
But at least they gave the boss more health, so they kept their word to provide us with more charges.

Ironwolf

I like the 4 hour refresh too, considering how difficult the third tier gods are and attempting to even get close to the 750.

It seems they are driving to have the event over by the end of the weekend and that is their balance for the event.  I personally scored higher than the last two times the event ran, being able to beat all three tier 3 nodes, scoring 491 points and still shy of getting all rewards.

I wish they'd let you run the event this challenging like the new way they've run Revolt, and just put a time limit on it. I personally would rather run the event when I have the time until I beat it, instead of waiting to play for 8 hours. 

James13

For what it's worth, more members of my coalition managed to get progression with this new event structure.

The event itself also lasted for mainly weekend hours, which was nice.

I realize we hear mainly only from top coalitions here, but do keep in mind there's more players than that.  And the most vocal isn't really "99.99%"

I think the only complaint I would have is that the node cap should be 6 charges for a nice even 24 hour-cycle buffer.  You're at 8 hours from start till you're losing time, 12 hrs till lost matches from start with the current 4 cap.

Twee

I played until I hit 500 points.  After that, I was getting bored of it and stopped.  I'm not a part of a top 10 and really, my coalition doesn't do anything so grinding for the prizes isn't worth it to me.  

ErikInVegas

As MadWren noted 8 hours - and I would even argue more than 8 hours fits most players.

I'd go to a set number of rounds per event.

If you cut the time then you're hooking unemployed people which is unhealthy for them and the game.

I don't say that to be mean but to be realistic.

Most people who spend money have jobs.

Most people who have jobs work 8 or 9 hours plus commute.

Many professionals work 10 hours but make 6 figures.

But hey, if D3 managment has some non-gamer MBA model that 1 hour recharges are predicted to rake in more $  then get ready to fill out unemployment forms because the game will crash and burn like so many mismanaged 'over-optimized' games before it.

As an example look at the entire industry of casual dining that is imploding with bankruptcies because MBAs 'know' that it's 'obviously more profitable' to source all your food from Sysco than to cook it in house with actual chefs.  Do you know what happens when you source from Sysco?  Your food is the same trash as every other generic microwave meal place and people stop going there.  It's not Millennials that are ruining food - it's bad management.

Don't let bad management and 'over-optimization' ruin MTG:PQ.

DuskPaladin

James13 said:

For what it's worth, more members of my coalition managed to get progression with this new event structure.

The event itself also lasted for mainly weekend hours, which was nice.

I realize we hear mainly only from top coalitions here, but do keep in mind there's more players than that.  And the most vocal isn't really "99.99%"

I think the only complaint I would have is that the node cap should be 6 charges for a nice even 24 hour-cycle buffer.  You're at 8 hours from start till you're losing time, 12 hrs till lost matches from start with the current 4 cap.

Did you guys reach progression because of the 4-hour refresh OR because max progression changed from 850 to 750? Because I would guess that it's the latter. That's the way to allow more people to reach max progression, lower the maximum total of points needed. 4-hour only meant that the event ended faster while ruining the weekend for nearly everyone.

babar3355

If you want to have 4 hour recharges, then at least allow us to build up more nodes.  If I could bank 8 nodes it wouldn't be as painful. 

You do realize that people like taking vacations, spending time with family, drinking too much, etc right D3?  Why not give us more choice in when we want to play games, even if you want to provide more content to those that are bored with 8 hour resets?

Brigby

(Disclaimer: I am not a developer/designer, so please offer a correction if any portion of this seems misrepresented or inadequate of an analysis. Thank you!)

To add to this brainstorm session, I wanted to see if I can break down the negative sentiment into the variables associated with the event.

Based on my understanding, boss event play-time is affected by 3 variables: # of Max Node Charges, Node Recharge Time, and Boss Health. Adjusting one of them will affect the other two in some way, shape, or form. Hypothetically if the event details were to be changed, then one or more of those variables must be adjusted to do so. Let's do some brainstorming then!

1) Increase Max Node Charge. Keep Else Same.
Players might play for a longer duration in a single session, but they can stockpile more attempts from the faster recharge time, so they can hit progression when their schedule allows.

2) Increase Max Node Charge. Increase Recharge Time. Keep Health Same.
No point in increasing max node charge if recharge time is increased as well, since most likely max limit will never be encountered, unless player isn't participating in the event.

3) Increase Node Recharge Time. Keep Else Same.
Lower number of attempts might mean difficulty reducing boss health to 0%, however this doesn't pressure players into needing to play so frequently.

4) Increase Node Recharge Time. Decrease Boss Health. Keep Max Charge Same.
Same as option 3, however decreased boss health might balance out the lower number of attempts.

5) Decrease Boss Health. Keep Else Same.
Players must still play frequently to stay competitive, however boss health drops faster, since each win has more impact on % health.

6) Decrease Boss Health. Increase Max Node Charge. Keep Recharge Same.
Same as option 1, however event ends quicker due to lower boss health.

7) Everything Changes
Same as option 2, except event ends a bit faster.


Of course this isn't every option, but just based on these 7 scenarios, what are everyone's thoughts? Which option(s) do you think need to be addressed? Which option(s) do you think do not need to be addressed?

deletedgone

4) Increase to 6 (or back to 8) hours between charges and a reduction in boss hp.

It was very nice to have the event end when it did.  That was just about perfect.  The frequency and amount of playing that was demanded was just too much - I'm in a good coalition and we had players after the event saying that they would not do it again at that frequency.

I can get through one refresh in around twenty minutes.  That is probably on the faster end of the spectrum. Four hour recharges means greater than two hours of play each day for most people.  Six hour recharges cuts that down to 80 minutes.

The number of banked nodes should be such that you can play through a full set, and then do it again the same time the following day.  This way, people have a chance at fitting the game into their schedule, rather than the other way around.  A six hour charge would mean 4 refreshes - the existing 4 charges would be ok.  To stay at four hour refreshes, 6 charges would be needed.

The reduction in boss hp (and progression requirements) should scale with the reduction in charges per day 4->6 hour equals a 33% reduction in boss hp.